All posts by hellabass

Minnesota Bass Opener 2013

I didn’t get to fish as much as I’d like over the 3 day weekend that is the MN Bass Opener over Memorial day weekend.  I did get out and catch some fish from a small lake from shore on Saturday morning, that was a very brief outing, but very productive, catching 5 bass in about 25 minutes on a swim jig with a Evolve Darkstar Swimmer trailer.  3 of those 5 fish were between 3-4lbs.

I also, took my girls out from shore later in the day, we caught a few bluegills and my youngest daughter got her first bass in a very short outing before heading to the park to play.

Finally Sunday, was my only fishing day in the boat, it was great to get out with my Dad and fish a west metro lake.  The morning was a little slow picking up a few fish here and there, getting most of our bites shallow around wood on a 3/8oz BassTEK Tungsten flipping jig in the Black Brown Green Pumpkin color

About half way through the day, we went through a channel to the smaller side of the lake and it was pretty much game on from there.  The water was about 2 degrees warmer and we started catching them pretty steady on BassTEK jigs and BassTEK ReSticks.  I mainly used the 6.5″ stick, looking for a little bigger bite, while my dad used the 5″, both using the Road Kill color.


You can see how chewed up these baits got in just a few hours, good stuff!

Water temps were mostly around 56-59 degrees, we caught our fish from 1-5′ and in the end we had over 30 bass, most of them between 2.5 – 3.5lbs with a couple touching 4lbs.  I weighed my biggest if was 4-03.  My other 4 best fish were all over 3lbs as well.


My biggest fish came on the Jig!

The giants in the lake eluded us on this trip, but we’ll get them next time!

  

La Crosse BFL – May 18, 2013

With the late spring, the first Great Lakes Division BFL event out of La Crosse kind of snuck up on me quickly.  Due to some obligations on the home front, I really had a pretty limited practice.  I really got about 2 days in total spread over 3 days.  I really with I had more because although I fish and like the Mississippi River quite a bit, most of my time has been spent July thru October, not April & May.

The Saturday of the weekend before I had about 4 hours in the morning to fish, so I checked some areas that I scouted via maps on the top of pool 7.  I fished what I thought to be pretty good looking water for fish that were going to be spawning soon as water temps were already 53F and climbing.  A buddy of mine and I only manged short bass, a pike and one keeper smallmouth.  It was warm all week, so I knew water temps would have to be hovering above that magical 60 degree mark that kicks things into gear in the spring.

I was not able to get down to the river on Thursday until about 4pm, and the water I fished the week before was just intriguing enough to make me want to check it.  I intended to just check it quick and then head down to the Black River to look for fish around the tournament take-off area, but I ended up getting just enough bites from 15-16″ chunky largemouth to make we want to try to find a little more up there and I ended up being there until about dark.  I caught those largemouth on a custom painted 1.5 squarebill & flipping a beaver bait in the first area, but only shorts after that.  So after what amounted to be about 1 day of practice, I had one area a pool up and a long run with a few decent fish, so better then nothing but not ideal.

Friday, the day before the event, I had decided to trailer down to Stoddard and look at areas I was familiar with from past events in the summer.  My practice started slow in the morning in a steady drizzly rain, picking up short largemouth and pike on a swim jig paired with Evolve Dark Swimmer.  Expanding my search, I spotted some deeper water on my map chips that intrigued me, again I caught a big pike, but shortly afterwards, I caught a 3lb+ largemouth on a beaver, I kept fishing more of this area, got a dog fish, few more shorts and another 2lb largie.  Keeping on the move, trying to find something close I finally ran into a flurry of fish on my swim jig, short largemouth, keeper largies and pike all mixed in, but it was obvious this area had a lot of fish in it.  After closer inspection, I noticed some clear spots that looked like beds and on closer inspection, there were some nice smallmouth on these bare spots, now I was starting to feel a little better about things.  From there I back tracked and found a closing dam, I quickly started getting bit and caught several smallmouth to go with my bedding fish and largemouth.  I tried a few more things down in the Stoddard area, but found nothing else and had committed to trailering my rig back to Clinton Street at noon to look for backup stuff for the rest of the day.  I basically eliminated water up there, on stuff I wouldn’t be fishing if I ended back up near ramp at the end of the day.

I ended up boat 57 out of 139, which was first boat in the 3rd flight.  My plan was to start on my closing dam, put a limit in the boat, let the sun get up a little and then go after those bedding fish and then go fishing from there.  Well even with the 3rd flight boat draw, I was first boat into my area.  It only took about 5 casts to put a nice 2lb smallmouth in the boat, but that was it, so I worked across to the other end of the dam and it was on, I had my limit in about 10 casts and culled several times before 7am.  I stayed there until around 9am upgrading a few times, also thinking my co-angler would get a fish or two.

So I went to my bank where I had some smallies on bed, the first pair of fish I stopped on were pretty skittish, so I moved on to the next fish which was bigger, it only took 5 or 6 pitches with a white Damiki Hydra on a Jika Rig to hook her and put her in the boat, this was a 3.5lb class smallmouth.  I kept fishing around thinking I would catch them blindly or I would be able to see them better soon, but the water had gotten a little dirtier, some of the beds became abandoned and I only got 1 2lb largemouth just fishing and I caught another smallmouth off a bed, but it was a little too small to help, so back to the closing dam where I culled about 3 more times with smallies and my co-angler got 2 fish.  At about noon, I decided to go to the area where I had caught that bigger largemouth to try for an upgrade know my smallest fish was around 2-06 and the rest were around 3lbs or more.  I could probably get a ounces here or there by sticking it out on the closing dam, but I wanted to go a little bigger.

In the other area, I spent about 5 minutes to catch a largemouth off a bed, that I misjudged, cause it was a little too small to help.  There were a few nice 3-4lb cruisers that were just too spooky, finally I got to where I had caught the big largemouth in practice, I pitched in there  blindly and it bit on the first cast, but didn’t take the bait all the way.  On further inspection, she was on a bed, I pretty much spent the rest of the day working on that fish, leaving for a bit and coming back, but couldn’t get here to go, even to the very last minute she sat there, agitated, mad but wouldn’t eat the bait.  I tried about 6 different tricks in my bed fishing arsenal, but it just didn’t happen, we raced back to the ramp and made it with 2 minutes to spare.

A couple of my smallmouth ate my bait funny and got tongue hooked, and one ended up dieing on me.  So my total ended up being 6th out of 139, with 14-02 after a dead fish penalty, 14-06 would have tied me for 5th, oh well that is fishing.

All my fish came on soft plastics in the event, most of closing dam fish came on the plastics in the picture below (Lake Fork Baby Creature & Ring Fry, Evolve Kompak Craw) on a mojo rig and the bed fish came on the Hydra & Black Blue Big Bite 4″ Tube.  I also credit my Dobyns DX743C paired with 12lb Sunline Shooter Fluorocarbon, I think that setup was a big difference why I was able to feel and catch 30 plus fish off a closing dam where my co-angler struggled to get two keepers, even after I shared my baits and positioned him for casting angles.

Looking back, I think I spent too much time in the area with the bedding smallies, it was good that I went there and got my biggest fish, but I should of read the water and left earlier to spend more time on the closing dam or to look in other areas for upgrades, but overall very pleased with my finish for a May tourney on the river, although, with a few tweaks, I think I could have competed for the win.

 


New Partners for 2013

Every year as a competitive angler and blog writer comes with new challenges, tournaments and opportunities. I am excited to bring forward KrugerFarms.com and Dobyns Rods from last year and excited to welcome both Evolve Baits and BassTEK to brands that I am excited to be working with.
            

Evolve has one of the softest & toughest floating hollow body frogs (Nervous Walker only $7) on the market and they continue to bring some great soft plastics to the market.  The Kompak craw was clutch for me last year and I am excited to tap into the potential of both their Mad Mouse and Darkstar Swimmers as I fish many tournaments on the Mississippi River this year in the Great Lakes BFL division.
Evolve Nervous Walker Frog
As far as BassTEK, I am heavily involved with them from the start.  BassTEK is a new company in 2013 that is bringing a Premium Tungsten Flipping Jig to all of us bass anglers at a competitive price.  Most of us have all found what a benefit Tungsten can be for worm and flipping weights, now its time to see what it can do for your jig fishing!


1/2oz Okeechobee Craw Tungsten Flipping Jig

So if you have a moment, check out the links to these products and if so inclined, support the brands that support me and this blog!

So stay tuned, you will be hearing much more from all these companies in the coming months as my tournament season ramps up!

Tight Lines,
Rich
Next Generation Artificials 

Locating Transitional Bass in Late Winter & Into the Pre-Spawn Period

Locating and Slamming Transitional Bass in Late Winter and
Into the Pre-Spawn Period.
-Elite Series Angler Clark Reehm

From my experience guiding this
winter and into the pre-spawn period on Sam Rayburn Reservoir, in East Texas, I
was able to repeatedly observe the ways in which bass transitioned back and
forth from deep water to key, shallower holding areas in preparation for the
spawn. This information is valuable and worth storing in your memory vault
regardless of where in the country you are chasing fish. Timing may be
different, but the patterns can certainly be duplicated.

During late winter, one of the best
pieces of advice I can give is to follow the bait. This makes it relatively
easy to stay on fish. Find the bait, and generally, you can stay on a good
school of bass for some time. Use your imaging unit to locate schools of shad,
and once you do, probe around the school to get bit. In this late winter, “not-quite-pre-spawn” phase, the temperature
fluctuations that accompanied cold fronts would create 2 distinct situations as
far as where the bait was: 1- on the warmer, stable successive days, the shad
were almost always holding near bottom in 20’ – 25’, and 2- on days after a
cold front, the shad would congregate in suspending balls around the 30’ – 40’
mark. Point being, the bait went from shallower holding zones to deeper
suspending patterns with temperature changes. In these offshore scenarios, once
the bait was located, I’d drag big football head jigs near any bottom structure
close to bait, or throw an A-rig loaded with EVOLVE VibraGRUBS in 3’’ white
shadow. You can really do some damage in this scenario. I’d suggest Seaguar
Kanzen in a heavier test for tossing these big offerings.

            As winter
started to taper off, and slowly warming, longer days made finding fish on bait
a bit harder, it was time to start looking at secondary points and channel
bends near obvious potential spawning flats. These areas can be common in a
lake, so you may have to spend some time probing these locations until you
locate a wad of fish. I particularly like when I find grass in these areas. If
you can find vegetation near these sharp channel bends and running along and up
points near traditional spawning flats, it’s absolutely worth spending time
here. This time period in East Texas is where you’ll see a red/orange lipless
crank on almost every boat- and my boat is no exception. After getting on fish,
I set my lipless rod down and start slow rolling an orange/red/craw patterned
swim jig with my EVOLVE DarkStar swimmer in pumpkin oil through both deep and
shallow grass. Popping this offering through deeper grass clumps and letting it
fall down the backside just always seemed to put kicker fish in the boat. You
can get into BIG fish on this pattern, and because you are also fishing around
vegetation or grass, you need to be prepared. I am running 40LB. braid (Seaguar
Kanzen has never let me down in knot strength and power), on a Dobyns extreme744. This would allow me to rip the swimjig through grass when I needed to, and
secure a hookset on long casts down deep. Keep these patterns in mind, and get
out there and shake the winter blues!

–CR.

 

Cliff Pace holds on for Bassmaster Classic Crown

In bass fishing’s biggest event, labeled as the Super Bowl of bass fishing, Cliff Pace, Bassmaster Elite Series Pro from Petal, MS, looked like
he was in position to blow away the Bassmaster Classic field at the end
of the day two weigh-in.  Back to back days of surpassing BassTrakks
best estimations with over 21lbs each day gave him what seemed a quite
comfortable 7lb margin over Brandon Palanuik who was in second place.  It was strange watching Bassmaster.com coverage as closely as I did and see most of the fields weights be pretty close, but then be so off on Cliff Pace’s BassTrakk weight every day.  After watching footage, I lend it two things, Cliff is a pretty big guy, so 3lb bass might look like 2lbrs when he is holding them to some, but more likely, when he would catch a fish, he would yank them in the boat, unhook and stuff into the livewells in a blink of an eye.  I don’t think his Marshalls ever had a chance to really eye up these fish, then they probably asked him how big and he low balled them.

Pace holds off field at Grand Lake
Cliff Pace 2013 Bassmaster Classic Champion!!!

Pace worked a two bait pattern all week, he would target deeper bottom hugging fish with a 3/4oz V&M Football Jig
and then look for fish higher in the water column with a suspending
jerkbait.  The tough thing about his pattern, he was fishing for about 6-7 bites per day, but they were the right ones, as shown on day 2 when he had two 7lbrs.  Some reports suggest his jerkbait of choice was a Jackall Squad Minnow, but Mark Zone reported that he fished a more traditional and larger Smithwick Rogue jerkbait rather then diminutive Squad Minnow.  The Rogue actually
makes more sense, as it is a well known producer on Grand Lake, and
with the bigger fish keying on jumbo Gizzard Shad, the Rogues larger
profile does a much better job of matching the forage for this event.

source:  V&M 3/4oz Football Jig – Image from BassZone.com

As far as the football jig itself,
Pace trimmed a few strands from the weedguard to help with the deep
water hook up ratio and he also dipped the ends of his V&M Twin Tail trailer
with orange dye to help generate a few extra strikes in the dingy Grand
Lake waters.  And it was the jig that Pace utilized to catch his last
two fish, giving him 4 fish for 11lbs that held off a hard charging
Brandon Palaniuk and went on to win by about 3 pounds.

This Bassmaster Classic win solidifies Cliff Pace as one of the great
up and coming bass pros and the $500,000 in his bank account should
help him fish more comfortably for years to come! Even though he didn’t show much for emotion when he won, I am sure Cliff is intensely satisfied and excited on the inside!  Catch some videos of the moment here.


Even though I was pretty much glued to my laptop all weekend, it will still be cool to see the coverage next weekend on ESPN2 to see more of the fish catching footage from all 3 days.


My February Mystery Tackle Box UnBoxing Experience

I recently signed up for three months of Mystery Tackle Box.  Similar concept as Tackle Grab, or as I said before Fruit of the Month Club for Bass Fisherman.  For roughly about $15 a month, depending on your subscription plan, you get a box of bass fishing lures sent to you door every month.
Mystery Tackle Box

The idea is you get to try new stuff and the box is guaranteed to be worth more then your $15 investment, plus your shipping is included.  They also have an online store where you can buy more of the products you go in your box, so if you like them and catch fish, you can buy more.

So the following is my first un-boxing video:

All in all I feel like my box was decent value.  I was most excited for the Ish Monroe Biggie Square Bill crankbait, that clearly is worth about $9 alone.  The other stuff was a Stanley Jig, which is a decent jig but not for me, I pretty much only use tungsten jigs.  Then I got a couple partial packs of plastics, the Twin Menace seems like a cool bait, the other creature bait was fairly ordinary in my mind.  The box also came with quite a few coupons, so if it happens to be stuff you are in the market for, it could save you some nice change!  If you have not tried the Rod Glove products, give them a whirl, I love them and use them to protect all my Dobyns Fishing Rods!

Stay tuned, more videos in the next two months about my other boxes!


Bassmaster Classic Week = Tulsa Time!

This week marks the official unofficial start to major tournament bass fishing for the year; yes we have had some Everstarts & Bassmaster Open events, but the real show starts with the Classic.

Like most years, I will be glued to the coverage all weekend long, so feel free to follow me on Twitter or on my FB page and I will make sure you are kept up to date on the high points.

Fantasy Fishing continues to grow and so do the prizes, so make sure to join up, couple of good leagues with free prizes, including those presented by BassTEK & Bass Utopia.  If you need some help making your picks, make sure to check out the Fantasy Fishing Insider Podcast that I help out with.  The high points of my picks are Jason Christie, Alton Jones, Brandon Card, Casey Scanlon, & Jared Knuth, to here the details and my co-hosts picks, catch the podcast.

Also, the Bassmaster Classic always gets me in the mood to buy lots of new tackle & gear, which means I will be listing stuff on ebay this week to make room for new stuff, catch yourself some deals!

 

FLW Big O Picks

All, tournament season is now kicking into full swing, there have been a couple Opens and Everstarts in Florida already and now the FLW Tour kicks of tomorrow on Lake Okeechobee.

Along with the Tours starting, big time Fantasy Fishing is starting as well.  You still got time to set your lineups at www.FantasyFishing.com to play.  Rosters lock for the Big O at midnight eastern tonight.  Look this for being a flippers shootout with a little sight fishing mixed in and a few small swimbaits.

If you don’t think you can beat me or don’t like free prizes, then don’t sign up.  If you need a little help with your team, here is my lineup. Copy it, steal an angler or two or use it as who to avoid, but this is what I got.

Here is a quick break down on each angler:
John Cox – Florida local, great track record, proven he can win on the tour level.
David Dudley – Stud, catches them every where, reigning AOY.
Chad Grigsby – Northern angler that understands Florida grass fishing
Koby Krieger – Perennial contender in Florida
Scott Martin – You shouldn’t have to ask, its in his blood
Brandon McMillan – Rising star, local, past winner
Brandon Medlock – He will make those Big O Bass eat his Medlock Jig
Jacob Powroznik – Solid track record in Florida, redemption tour after AOY runner up
Randall Tharp – He practically lives on Okeechobee with McMillan, last year’s winner
Barry Wilson – Sneaky dark horse pick, Bass Rankings suggests he is good bet on Big O from his Triple A level tournaments on Okeechobee.

Good Luck all, subscribe or stop back for more picks for BASS & FLW all year long!

   

Minnesota Anglers Expo + Coupon

Between the big St. Paul and Minneapolis sport shows is this weekend’s MN Anglers Expo in Blaine.  Last year in April the same group put on a very good 1st year Bass Expo, to get better traction, they have changed it to the Anglers Expo and moved it up to February.

If you have the fishing bug like I do, I encourage you to take in this show this weekend.  I plan to be there all day on Saturday, when I am not walking around taking in the expo you will likely find me hanging around the KrugerFarms.com booth.

Kruger Farms is sure to have a wide selection of fishing gear and if you have been thinking about checking out a Dobyns Rod, Kruger Farms is sure to have a wide selection to check out, plus many other show specials!  Either way, make sure to stop & say hello.

Also, below is a $1 Off Admission coupon I came across to share with you.


 

My Tackle Grab UnBoxing Experience

I recently had the opportunity to try Tackle Grab for a month.  The basic principle behind Tackle Grab is you sign up for a monthly membership ranging from $12-16 depending on how long you sign up and you get new baits in the mail every month.  Kind of like fruit of the month club, but for fishing.
  Interesting thing about Tackle Grab is that you fill out a profile, which asks you questions about the species, type and location of fishing you do most often to help tailor your tackle pack to your needs and wants.  Check out the following video to see what I got in my box.

All in all, I think the value that I received in my initial January box was worth more then the $15 box of single box membership.  I got a sample pack of two drop shot weights from Road Hog Baits, a Kahara Yajirobee 3 Blade ($15 value), some Optimum drop shot baits, and some Evolve Kompak Craws ($5) & a Yo-Zuri Pin Minnow jerkbait ($8).  So 5 things with a retail value around $30-$35.  It is all stuff I could use, not sure if I would have bought it all if I was shopping, but that can be a good thing as well.  The Optimum Baits Wacky Shads are solid, as I have used them before (comparable to Jackall pintail or cross tail shads) and I love the Evolve Kompak craws, I have actually caught smallies on the ones in Tackle Grab between filming video and posting this blog.

I guess the other unique thing, is you earn points every month for being enrolled, you also can earn points by doing reviews, referring friends and other activities, those points can be used to shop in the Tackle Grab store of additional items, either new stuff  you want to try or if you want more of the stuff you already received in your box.

Overall, if you are into trying new baits, and wanting to build your bait arsenal, this can be a pretty cool service for anglers.